Memory Strategies

UW MEDICINE | PATIENT EDUCATION
|| Memory Strategies
|| Helping you remember
This handout explains the 4 types of memory. It also gives strategies to
help you remember things if your memory is impaired.
What is memory?
Memory is the ability to learn, store, and
retrieve information. New or increasing
problems with any or all of these 3 stages
of memory often occur after a traumatic
brain injury, stroke, brain tumor, multiple
sclerosis, or other kind of injury or illness Injury or illness can affect
that affects your nervous system. your memory.
Some memory problems may also occur as part of normal aging, when
many people have more trouble retrieving new information.
Types of Memory
• Long-term (remote): memory for old, well-learned information
that has been rehearsed (used) over time, such as the name of a
childhood pet, memories of vacations, or where you went to high
school. Long-term memory tends to remain after injury or illness.
• Short-term (recent): memory for new things that took place a few
minutes, hours, or days ago, such as what you had for breakfast or
what you did yesterday. Short-term memory tends to be the most
affected after injury. People who have had brain injuries may have
problems with attention span, storing memories, thinking quickly,
and learning easily. These memory problems make it hard to
understand and save short-term memories so that they can be
rehearsed and stored in long-term memory.
• Immediate (working): memory for information that is current,
that you usually keep track of mentally, such as a phone number you
look up, directions someone just gave you, or keeping track of
numbers in your head when you add or subtract.
• Prospective: the ability to remember to do something in the
future, such as taking a medicine, going to an appointment, or
following through on an assignment or project.
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Speech Pathology Services | Box 356154
1959 N.E. Pacific St., Seattle, WA 98195 | 206. 597.3295
Strategies to Help Improve Your Memory
Your speech therapist can help you with strategies to help you
remember new information. There are 2 main types of strategies to
help your memory: internal reminders and external reminders.
Internal Reminders
• Rehearsal: retelling yourself information you just learned, or
restating it out loud in your own words.
A medicine organizing tool can
help you remember when to • Repetition: saying the same information over and over, either
take your medicines. silently or out loud.
• Clarification: asking others to repeat or rephrase information.
• Chunking: grouping items to reduce the number of items to
remember, such as grouping 7-digit phone numbers into 2 chunks,
one with 3 numbers and the other with 4 numbers.
• Rhyming: making a rhyme out of important information.
• Acronyms or alphabet cueing: creating a letter for each word you
want to remember, or vice versa. One example is using the sentence
“Every Good Boy Does Fine” to remember that the notes E, G, B, D,
and F are on the lines of a treble staff in music.
• Imagery (also called visualization): creating pictures of the
information in your mind.
• Association: linking old information or habits with the new, such as
taking your medicine at the same time that you brush your teeth.
• Personal meaning: making the new information meaningful or
emotionally important to you in some way.
External Reminders
• Using a paper or electronic calendar or day planner.
• Setting timers or alarms to remind you to do something.
• Using written reminders such as to-do lists, shopping lists, and
Questions? project outlines.
Your questions are important. • Recording new information with a voice recorder.
Call your doctor or healthcare
provider if you have questions • Using a medicine organizing tool, such as a MediSet.
or concerns. • Creating specific, permanent places for important items. One
Speech Pathology Services: example is putting your keys, wallet, and cell phone in the same place
206.597.3295 every time you get home.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
© University of Washington Medical Center
Published PFES: 2011, 2012, 2021
Page 2 of 2 | Memory Strategies
Clinician Review: 02/2021 Speech Pathology Services | Box 356154
Reprints on Health Online: https://healthonline.washington.edu 1959 N.E. Pacific St., Seattle, WA 98195 | 206. 597.3295

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